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Book Review - Conversations with Seiji Ozawa by Haruki Murakami<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Absolutely-Music-Conversations-Haruki-Murakami-ebook/dp/B01C1LUFAA/">Absolutely on Music, Conversations with Seiji Ozawa</a> by Haruki Murakami is a series of conversations on classical music between the great conductor Seiji Ozawa and Haruki Murakami. I hadn’t heard of Marukami before finding this book, but he is an excellent writer. While Murakami doesn’t have any classical training, he has very deep observations and he is a true fan of classical music. The conversation is much more balanced than I would have anticipated. I thought this would be more just a way for Ozawa to recount his life stories, but Murakami more than holds his own in the classical conversations.</p>
<div align="center"><img src="../../assets/images/2020-books-seiji-ozawa.jpg" /></div>
<p><br /></p>
<p>This is a series of conversations on classical music between the great conductor Seiji Ozawa and Haruki Murakami. I hadn’t heard of Marukami before finding this book, but he is an excellent writer. While Murakami doesn’t have any classical training, he has very deep observations and he is a true fan of classical music. The conversation is much more balanced than I would have anticipated. I thought this would be more just a way for Ozawa to recount his life stories, but Murakami more than holds his own in the classical conversations.</p>
<p>Seiji Ozawa is not a conductor that I have spent any real time thinking about. I am of course aware of him as the long-time music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Ironically, I thought he was an expert in French music because he had recorded a bunch of it with the BSO and also with the Orchestre de Paris. It turns out that Ozawa actually was a disciple of Karajan and very much rooted in German music (Brahms, Beethoven, etc.) as the foundation.</p>
<p>One really interesting thing that they discussed is the sound and quality of orchestras. Ozawa mentioned that his approach was entirely different with the BSO vs. when he would conduct other orchestras. More time was spent “training” them. I interpreted that to mean focusing on specific phrasing, balance, tonal quality, and perhaps even intonation. Probably a lot of it was building out specific repertoire. I have always had the impression that the BSO has a polished sound, with great ensemble and lush strings. Some of that is touched on in the book.</p>
<p>They talk about Mahler for quite some time, but unfortunately, the conversation only scratched the surface. Most of it was on the change in how people (and musicians) perceive Mahler. An interesting point that Ozawa makes is that Mahler was not just championed by Bernstein in the early days, but also by the musicians themselves. Musicians loved to play Mahler because it was personally challenging and satifsfying. They also discuss Mahler as a singularly unique composer, who did not follow the German line (Beethoven -&gt; Brahms -&gt; Strauss) but also did not have anything to do with the new schools (such as the twelve-tone music of Schoenberg and Berg).</p>
<p>I have always felt that Mahler sat at the edge of both worlds. I think there is quite a bit of inspiration that Mahler took from Germanic romantic music, particularly the lush melodies and some of the programmatic themes. But what sets Mahler apart is his ability to seamlessly integrate in atonal and often polyphonic music, and somehow have that enhance the gorgeous melodies. There are very few composers that have been able to successfully do that. Other than Mahler, only Prokofiev, Shostakovich (sometimes), and Ravel (even more rare) have done it, in my opinion.</p>
<p>My one criticism of the book is that the conversations are actually not deep or detailed enough. The first conversation is about Glenn Gould and the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3. They compare his recording with Karajan against a later recording with Bernstein. They then bring in other pianists into the conversation (Rudolf Serkin, Mitsuka Uchida). They point out major differences (in tempi, dynamics, style, etc.). But too often, the descriptions when it comes to style are generic (i.e. this is so free, vs. this is so tight). I wish they would describe in more detail exactly what they heard to come to that assessment. Of course, a lot of listening to music and particularly listening to style is about explaining the effect that it has on you as a listener.</p>
<p>The other area that I would’ve loved to see more is for Ozawa to be a little more open. He brings up many people that he worked with. But he actually reveals very little about his working style or his beliefs on music. He sometimes worries that he might be revealing “trade secrets”, but what he reveals ultimately seems very benign (one example is that conductors will already have started studying the next program while still in the middle of conducting the current concert cycle).</p>
<p>At a minimum, reading this book will encourage me to seek out and listen to more of Ozawa’s recordings, particularly the German stuff and the Mahler recordings.</p>
2020-04-05 00:00:00 -0700http://localhost:4000/blog/book-review-conversations-with-seiji-ozawa/
Touring Munich's Pinakotheken<p>I had a free day in Munich, so I decided to make the most of it by visiting all the <a href="https://www.pinakothek.de/en">Pinakotheken</a> art museums that Munich has to offer. Munich seems to have embraced modern and contemporary art in particular, and the entire day was educational for me.</p>
<p>There are five museums as part of the Pinakotheken group in Munich:</p>
<ul>
<li>Alte Pinakothek (Old, through mid 1800’s, a huge collection of Dutch Baroque including Rubens in particular)</li>
<li>Neue Pinakothek (New, meant to cover late 1800’s and early 1900’s, unfortunately closed for renovations)</li>
<li>Pinakothek der Moderne (Modern and includes design and architecture as well)</li>
<li>Museum Brandhorst (small museum for modern art, focusing on Cy Twombly and Andy Warhol)</li>
<li>Schackgalerie (private collection of mostly 19th century German paintings)</li>
</ul>
<p>The Neue Pinakothek was closed, but a selection of its highlights were exhibited in the Alte Pinakothek. Below I list some of my thoughts as I strolled through this amazing collection of art.</p>
<h3 id="alte-pinakothek">Alte Pinakothek</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p>I had originally decided to go mostly in chronological order (Schackgalerie was the sole exception since it is farther away than the other museums and thus must be visited separately), so I started the day with Baroque and Classical paintings.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>My chronological plan was immediately ruined when I actually went to the Neue Pinakothek collection first instead.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>There are some really remarkable Impressionist and post-Impressionist works shown. My favorite was Gustav Klimt’s Portrait of Margaret Stonborough-Wittgenstein. In the museum, the tall figure really stands out, and the gold in the background provide exactly the right of flair. The flowing white dress, which is not quite white, and which Klimt takes such care to document all the various folds, is probably the highlight of the picture.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<div align="center"><img src="../../assets/images/touring-munichs-pinakotheken-1.jpg" /></div>
<div align="center"><i>Klimt's Portrait of Margaret Stonborough-Wittgenstein</i></div>
<p><br /></p>
<ul>
<li>Manet’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luncheon_in_the_Studio">Luncheon in the Studio</a> also stood out. The young man depicted is speculated to be Manet’s biological son, and Manet portrays him full of confidence and assuredness. The props in the foreground are interesting also, and they give the picture the ambiguous name of (in the studio), because why else would the props be there if they were simply eating in a dining room?</li>
</ul>
<div align="center"><img src="../../assets/images/touring-munichs-pinakotheken-2.jpg" /></div>
<div align="center"><i>Manet's Luncheon in the Studio</i></div>
<p><br /></p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>There was a large room dedicated to Germany’s landscape painters. I liked the contrast between two landscapes painted by Ludwig Richter and Joseph Anton Koch, where despite the two ostensibly portraying similar scenery, the Richter one makes a much friendlier statement on nature and man’s role in nature.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>In the main section of Alte Pinakothek is the Baroque, Classic, and Renaissance collections. Probably the most well-known picture is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Portrait_(D%C3%BCrer,_Munich)">Albrecht Dürer’s Self-Portrait</a>. Dürer seems to deliberately portrary himself as a Christ-like figure.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<div align="center"><img src="../../assets/images/touring-munichs-pinakotheken-3.jpg" /></div>
<div align="center"><i>Dürer's Self-Portrait</i></div>
<p><br /></p>
<ul>
<li>I kinda got lost walking through the giant Rubens and Flemish collections. The pictures are all huge and grand, and the Alte Pinakothek has high ceilings and hangs some of the pictures way up high on the wall. My only thought while walking through the seemingly endless collection is that Rubens (and all the artists of that time) must have been either very prolific or very busy (and probably both).</li>
</ul>
<div align="center"><img src="../../assets/images/touring-munichs-pinakotheken-4.jpg" /></div>
<div align="center"><i>One of a countless number of amazing Rubens pictures</i></div>
<p><br /></p>
<ul>
<li>A minor point, but I was surprised at how much natural light the museum allowed, and in many cases, the sunlight would glare off the paintings and make it actually difficult to view the painting.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="pinakothek-der-moderne">Pinakothek der Moderne</h3>
<ul>
<li>Maybe the highlight of the Modern Pinakothek is the interesting installation at the entrance, a house that kinda looks like a UFO (or at least how someone from the 1960’s might imagine a UFO).</li>
</ul>
<div align="center"><img src="../../assets/images/touring-munichs-pinakotheken-5.jpg" /></div>
<div align="center"><i>This guy makes for quite an entrance</i></div>
<p><br /></p>
<ul>
<li>The Modern museum has an impressive design collection and I went through that first. The section on vehicles featured several interesting concept designs for motorcycles. This one looks like it’s been ripped off in several movies.</li>
</ul>
<div align="center"><img src="../../assets/images/touring-munichs-pinakotheken-6.jpg" /></div>
<div align="center"><i>Looks fast</i></div>
<p><br /></p>
<ul>
<li>The paintings section had some Cubist works by Picasso and Braque. I’m still too much of an amateur with Cubism; all the pictures roughly look similar to me, and I have trouble distinguishing them.</li>
</ul>
<h3 id="museum-brandhorst">Museum Brandhorst</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p>This museum is mostly known for Andy Warhol and Cy Twombly collections. I had just seen a giant Warhol special exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago, so I mostly breezed through the Warhol stuff.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>I had never heard of Cy Twombly, and to be honest, even now after seeing all his stuff, I still am not entirely sure of why he captured so many people’s attention and imagination. The Brandhorst has an entire room dedicated to displaying his Lepanto cycle, which is 12 works that depict a 1571 naval battle between the Ottomans and the Holy League. Similar to the Musée de l’Orangerie and Monet, the room was built specifically just to house this cycle. The works are probably too abstract for me.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<div align="center"><img src="../../assets/images/touring-munichs-pinakotheken-7.jpg" /></div>
<div align="center"><i>The beginning of the Lepanto cycle</i></div>
<p><br /></p>
<h3 id="schackgalerie">Schackgalerie</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p>This museum houses the private collection of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Friedrich_von_Schack">Adolf Friedrich von Schack</a>, a German poet from the 19th century. Unfortunately for Schack, his poetry is mostly forgotten, and he is now mostly known for having amassed this giant collection of art.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Schack’s tastes were not very progressive. He seemed to collect mostly German works, and predominantly the types of nature settings that were pleasing to the eye but not really intellectually challenging.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The only one that really caught my eye is Des Knaben Wunderhorn by Moritz von Schwind. Mahler of course did a song cycle based on the poetry collection, and lots of music albums make this painting the cover art for the Mahler songs.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<div align="center"><img src="../../assets/images/touring-munichs-pinakotheken-8.jpg" /></div>
<div align="center"><i>Moritz von Schwind's Des Knaben Wunderhorn</i></div>
<p><br /></p>
<p>And just like that, my day through several hundred years of art concluded. This day mostly reaffirmed some of my existing thoughts around art.</p>
<ul>
<li>I’m really drawn to Impressionism and post-Impressionist periods, especially that sweet spot from roughly 1870 to 1910.</li>
<li>I am awed by the Flemish masters like Rubens and Rembrandt, but I don’t have any natural intellectual curiosity to go find out more about them.</li>
<li>Modern and Contemporary art remain hit and miss, and in sum they require too much background explanation to deliver their message.</li>
<li>You <em>can</em> have too much of a good thing. Maybe part of what makes the few Manet, Van Gogh, and Klimt that I saw really stand out is that I only saw a few of them. Whereas I saw literally hundreds of Rubens, dozens of Warhol, nearly the entire Twombly collection, and countless German romantic pictures.</li>
</ul>
2020-02-08 00:00:00 -0800http://localhost:4000/blog/touring-munichs-pinakotheken/
Bartok and the Bavarian State Opera<p>During a very quick 2-day trip to Munich, I was able to squeeze in a performance by the Bavarian State Opera at the gorgeous National Theatre. I was not picky on the performance since I only have two days here. I got a very nice ticket (fourth row, near the center) for a performance of Bartok’s Concerto for Orchestra and Bluebeard’s Castle. My luck wasn’t perfect; the next day, there is a performance of Mozart’s Magic Flute, but unfortunately it is a children’s only concert.</p>
<p>First of all, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Theatre_Munich">National Theatre</a> really is quite lovely. They have sculpture portraits of all the major music directors and influential operatic composers in the halls. The layout of the hall is very simple: there is only a ground floor, and then all the upper floors are box seats (I counted 4-5 floors). In sum, it is a very small opera hall.</p>
<div align="center"><img src="../../assets/images/bartok-and-the-bavarian-state-opera-1.jpg" /></div>
<div align="center"><i>The beautiful and ornamental National Theatre</i></div>
<p><br /></p>
<p>I was surprised to learn that concert programs are not free (8 euros), and unfortunately they were only available in German. So I was pretty blind heading in to the performance. I am very familiar with the Concerto for Orchestra, but I was curious how they would integrate an operatic element into it. I was vaguely familiar with Bluebeard’s Castle (and its story about Bluebeard as a serial killer of wives).</p>
<p>(Later, I found out that the performance was conducted by Oksana Lyniv, and the performers were Nina Stemme and John Lundgren.)</p>
<div align="center"><img src="../../assets/images/bartok-and-the-bavarian-state-opera-2.jpg" /></div>
<div align="center"><i>We started the first half with a movie</i></div>
<p><br /></p>
<p>The program started with the Concerto, and there was a silent video playing on a large screen on the stage. The video is set in modern times and begins with a mysterious man browsing through the website of an escort agency, eventually setting up a tryst with one of listed women. The woman is drugged on her way to meeting her suitor, and then we see that she has been bound and (possibly) tortured. There is a female detective that is investigating this woman and other women’s disappearances, and she finds that there is a pattern and all the missing women came from the escort site. She poses as an escort herself and is on her way to seeing the mystery man.</p>
<p>The video ends, and the performers on stage show up immediately (without intermission), and we transitioned seamlessly into Bluebeard’s Castle. The rest of the performance was anxiety-ridden, with Judith (the main heroine who has recently married Bluebeard) slowly discovering what’s behind each of the 7 locked doors. Finally, we of course come to the final room, where Bluebeard has imprisoned his other wives.</p>
<p>I think this is the single most interesting and memorable opera event I’ve ever been to. The first half with the concerto was legitimately exciting, with the video matching very well with the music. The Bavarian State Opera orchestra played really well, and it’s really the first time I’ve noticed an opera orchestra taking a front seat. The second half was exciting and dramatic, and again the orchestra shined during the climatic moments, especially the leadup into opening the last locked door.</p>
2020-02-07 00:00:00 -0800http://localhost:4000/blog/bartok-and-the-bavarian-state-opera/
Sergey Khachatryan Plays From the Heart<p>Tonight was a vivid reminder of why it’s so important to attend concerts live in person. We were completely and joyously surprised by the heartfelt playing style of Sergey Khachatryan. In his hands, Sibelius was the same notes and yet entirely different, a lot more personal and introspective.</p>
<p>The program started with Jörg Widmann newish piece (from 2008), Con Brio, a celebration of Beethoven’s music. Khachatryan was next with the Sibelius Violin Concerto. And then the San Francisco Symphony closed out the concert with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, as part of the Beethoven 250 series. Dima Slobodeniouk was the conductor. We had seats in the first row, so as to get a better experience watching Khachatryan.</p>
<p>The Widmann piece was chaotic and very random. There were several overt allusions to Beethoven’s symphonies, (the piece starts on the same A major chord that Beethoven’s 7th starts on). Overall, it was interesting, but perhaps a bit too abstract for my taste.</p>
<p>Khachatryan is the reason we bought tickets to this concert in the first place. I have been passively following his career ever since I heard his <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000CNTJH">debut album</a>, which included the Sibelius and Khachaturian violin concertos. I mostly focused on his playing of the Khachaturian, and I remember thinking it was an interpretation that made a lot of sense, having accentuated the melodical and lyrical passages of the piece. Unfortunately, Khachatryan doesn’t tour the US very often, so I’ve always wanted to try to hear him live in person if possible.</p>
<div align="center"><img src="../../assets/images/sergey-khachatryan-plays-from-the-heart-1.jpg" /></div>
<div align="center"><i>Khachatryan's Debut Album</i></div>
<p><br /></p>
<p>The beginning of Sibelius is ethereal and otherworldly in the hands of any good professional concert violinist. But when Khachatryan first started the lyrical opening, I found I couldn’t breathe. His playing seemed completely effortless. The vibrato jumped off the string. Khachatryan’s vibrato is lively and wide. It is neither a finger or wrist vibrato, it is an entire hand vibrato. He was completely in control. Partway through the first movement, I suddenly realized that Khachatryan was playing much slower than the typical convention, but it was nearly unnoticeable because I was just transfixed by his playing. Similarly, the cadenza to the first movement was another place I found myself daring not to breathe, afraid to disturb his playing.</p>
<p>There were moments of pure surprise and exhiliration. The end of the first movement famously has the violin soloist play a fingered harmonic as the penultimate note. Khachatryan eschewed it entirely and instead played the fingered note high up on the E string with such volume, intensity, and vibrato, that now I cannot envision any other way to play that ending.</p>
<p>It’s worth bringing up Khachatryan’s vibrato more specifically. As I already mentioned, it is really an entire hand vibrato, so it is both wide and quick. But the best feature is his vibrato rate - almost every note gets vibrated, and Khachatryan doesn’t play games with not starting the vibrato right away for long notes. It is really just a constant stream of singing, and it is incredibly effective.</p>
<p>Because of the full hand vibrato, I feel confident in pronouncing Khachatryan does something better than any violinist I have ever seen in person, which is fourth finger vibrato. Many great violinists never develop a strong fourth finger vibrato - it’s the weakest finger and most passages can be re-fingered to avoid it on key notes. But with Khachatryan, the fourth finger is just as strong and singing as the rest.</p>
<p>Khachatryan also has very good bow control and body movements. He moves a lot and also has quite a few facial expressions. But unlike some other soloists, I really didn’t feel like the movement was for show, but instead was simply because they couldn’t be contained. All the movements go back to the effortless playing. It didn’t register for me that Khachatryan was trying very hard until the last movement.</p>
<p>The second movement accentuated all the previous strengths of Khachatryan. He is a real singer on the violin.</p>
<p>The last movement is the showpiece, with large chords, harmonics galore, and running thirds. Here, some of Khachatryan’s weaknesses were more apparent. I haven’t talked much about his hard technical skills. Khachatryan quite frequently had intonation problems. He also didn’t always play well with the orchestra, often taking extremely different tempos from the established orchestral tempo. He also struggled quite a bit with the bow technique in the running thirds (his bow hand wasn’t clean, and it made the run sound muffled).</p>
<p>But this is all competely secondary. The bottom line is Khachatryan brought completely new life to a piece that I’ve heard hundreds of times. He opened my eyes on what consistent vibrato can bring to playing. He seemingly played completely from the heart, with no false modesty. There are plenty of worldclass violinists that can play Sibelius without missing a note. I remember thinking during the performance that even with some of the intonation and technical struggles, if I had the abiliity to play the Sibelius however I chose, I would choose to play like Khachatryan.</p>
<p>The crowd was with Khachtryan the whole way. There was audible excitement at the conclusion of the first movement. And Khachatryan got a slam dunk standing ovation at the end of the piece.</p>
<div align="center"><img src="../../assets/images/sergey-khachatryan-plays-from-the-heart-2.jpg" /></div>
<div align="center"><i>Khachatryan during the standing ovation</i></div>
<p><br /></p>
<p>For the encore, Khachatryan again chose something completely personal, a tenth century Armenian piece called <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHY8W7LCjlQ">Havoun Havoun by Grigor Narekatsi</a>. It was simple and lovely. It’s not surprising that Khachatryan would choose to play a song that accentuates simple singing and melodic lines. They are the foundation from which Khachatryan excels.</p>
<p>The rest of the concert was a somewhat auto-pilot version of Beethoven 7 from the SFS. I should be clear that even an auto-pilot rendition is still exhilirating to watch, if not just to revel in the mastery of Beethoven. The 7th is an absolute masterpiece. But unlike with Khachatryan, it was pretty clear that the SFS musicians didn’t exactly have their hearts in the music. Lots of missed bowings (particularly in the last movement, which is always tricky for bowings). And throughout the piece, the orchestra’s dynamic range basically went from mezzo forte to about forte (I concede that this might be because we were in the front row, so the sound wasn’t as well balanced). In general, I can’t really blame the musicians for the lack of focus. They will be playing a lot of Beethoven in the coming months.</p>
2020-01-24 00:00:00 -0800http://localhost:4000/blog/sergey-khachaturian-plays-from-the-heart/
2020 Reading List<p>This is the reading list for 2020.</p>
<ol>
<li><a href="#anna">Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy</a></li>
<li><a href="#scrubs">Where do you think we are? by Shea Serrano</a></li>
<li><a href="#iger">The Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Iger</a></li>
<li><a href="#murakami">Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa by Haruki Murakami</a></li>
<li><a href="#saga">Saga by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples</a></li>
<li><a href="#jordan">Playing for Keeps by David Halberstam</a></li>
<li><a href="#howl">Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones</a></li>
</ol>
<p><a name="anna"></a></p>
<h2>
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Anna-Karenina-Leo-Tolstoy/dp/1977924689">Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy</a>
</h2>
<div align="center"><img src="../../assets/images/2020-books-anna-karenina.jpg" /></div>
<p>I had always been aware of this novel of course. It’s one of the best known in literature. I’m not sure what made me really want to jump in and read it. I wanted to read a period piece with some drama. Anna Karenina fulfilled that desire and probably overfilled it. It took me almost four months to finish reading the book.</p>
<p>The book is so rich in texture and details. It’s remarkable how much insight into people’s thinking and emotions that Tolstoy has. He is comfortable calling out when something a character says doesn’t make sense, but still they say it. Perhaps I’m naive, but I really didn’t see Anna’s fate coming (I thought she would find some way to live alone and in shame for the rest of her life). I’m also surprised that more didn’t come from the Anna/Levin relationship.</p>
<p>This novel is truly a masterpiece.</p>
<p><a name="scrubs"></a></p>
<h2>
<a href="https://gumroad.com/l/ySrff">Where do you think we are? by Shea Serrano</a>
</h2>
<div align="center"><img src="../../assets/images/2020-books-scrubs.jpg" /></div>
<p>I devoured this collection of 10 essays about Scrubs in one morning. It follows the same basic template as Serrano’s other books, including a very similar e-book about The Office TV show that I read last year. Serrano has a very casual (but engaging) storytelling style. He weaves in multiple different layers of pop culture and sports and uses it to tell the stories. He can be poignant when needed (the story about his grandmother on her deathbed…). More than anything, this celebrates a show that I have been watching for more than half my life. It is one that I come back to every few years. Serrano really highlights what makes the show special.</p>
<p><a name="iger"></a></p>
<h2>
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ride-Lifetime-Lessons-Learned-Company/dp/B07QW2LHN4">The Ride of a Lifetime by Robert Iger</a>
</h2>
<div align="center"><img src="../../assets/images/2020-books-robert-iger.jpg" /></div>
<p>This was a breezy book and one that shot to the top of my list after Robert Iger recently stepped down as CEO of Disney. I have had an admiration for Disney as a company for most of my life. That really concentrated in the last few years as my kids have reached Disneyland age (we have been to Disneyland or Disney World 4 times in the last 5 years). There is a wonderful attention to detail and generally high bar for customer experience.</p>
<p>Robert Iger has been was in charge of Disney for 15 years. The book is mostly a memoir with some business lessons thrown in. There’s nothing revolutionary in here. Iger had the combination of both being successful early in his career and getting lucky with opportunities opening up at the right times. He’s clearly a very talented businessman, with a high level of integrity and a good sense of timing.</p>
<p>Much of the latter half of the book is about Iger’s pursuit of four major acquisitions (Pixar, Marvel, LucasFilm, and Fox). All of this seems obvious in hindsight, but it’s remarkable to look back and see that Pixar ($7B), Marvel ($4B), and LucasFilm ($4B) were bought for a total that is less than some young tech companies today (before the recent crash, a company like Slack had a higher market cap than the combined value of the three acquisitions). These acquisitions will probably be tought in MBA classes for years to come as the ultimate examples of corporate synergies and the whole being greater than sum of the parts.</p>
<p><a name="murakami"></a></p>
<h2>
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Absolutely-Music-Conversations-Haruki-Murakami-ebook/dp/B01C1LUFAA">Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa by Haruki Murakami</a>
</h2>
<div align="center"><img src="../../assets/images/2020-books-seiji-ozawa.jpg" /></div>
<p>My thoughts on this book went long, so I captured them in a separate <a href="http://www.xingdig.com/blog/book-review-conversations-with-seiji-ozawa">post</a>.</p>
<p><a name="saga"></a></p>
<h2>
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Saga-Compendium-Brian-K-Vaughan-ebook/dp/B07QYXFQJ4">Saga Volumes 1-9 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples</a>
</h2>
<div align="center"><img src="../../assets/images/2020-books-saga.jpg" /></div>
<p>Wow. I have never been a comic book guy. Growing up, lots of my friends would buy and collect comic books, but I never got into it for whatever reason. I did enjoy watching some of the cartoons (I particularly liked the X-Men TV series), but I never actually got into the superhero stuff. Comics like Calvin and Hobbes were a different story. I read those vociferously and still do today. Saga makes me question everything about this: should I have been reading comic books this whole time?</p>
<p>I discovered Saga through the Binge Mode podcast. They talked about this series with such conviction and passion, that I figured I had to check it out. I ended up reading the entire series to date (9 volumes) in 2 days. I literally couldn’t put it down. The combination of a good story, very compelling characters, and beautiful hand-drawn art and landscapes in a fantasy world was just wonderfully enrapturing.</p>
<p>The story itself is not entirely compelling. The Wikipedia entry for Saga notes that it is inspired by Star Wars and also has some elements of Game of Thrones. I think that’s not entirely accurate. Thematically, Saga is way different from Star Wars. As far as I can tell, the only thing those two share is seemingly endless world building, with many different planets, species, cultures, and technology. But this is loosely true for all science fiction/fantasy, so I’m not sure why the direct comparison to Star Wars is necessary.</p>
<p>The Game of Thrones element is more readily apparent. Saga’s world is more nuanced and driven by a ton of politics. There is no clean Jedi light side vs. Sith dark side fight. Instead, there is a ton more gray. As an example, The Will is a bounty hunter character who shamelessly murders people for hire but goes out of his way to save a six-year old girl sold as a sex slave (it’s basically an earlier and more salacious version of the Mandalorian plot). Also, there is a lot more explict depiction of sex and other adult material.</p>
<p>Saga is halfway through, and the authors are taking a break before starting the second half. I cannot wait to read the conclusion of this series.</p>
<p><a name="jordan"></a></p>
<h2>
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Playing-Keeps-Michael-Jordan-World-ebook/dp/B00AEGIGFQ">Playing for Keeps by David Halberstam</a>
</h2>
<div align="center"><img src="../../assets/images/2020-books-jordan.jpg" /></div>
<p>I had always wanted to read this book but it was never a priority until now. Long ago, I read the brilliant book <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Breaks-Game-David-Halberstam-ebook/dp/B007SO31SY">Breaks of the Game</a>, also by David Halberstam, which followed the Bill Walton-lead Trailblazers team and focused specifically on how the team grew apart after winning the NBA championship. Halberstam is an amazing writer, with a ton of “show”, very little “tell”, and a simple writing style that is easy to read. Reading a Halberstam book is like reading a long Zach Lowe feature or Sports Illustrated feature, except the feature in question takes 5-6 hours to read.</p>
<p>The other reason I never read the book is I felt like I was there for the Michael Jordan experience. I wasn’t sure what would be new to me. I read it now because of the upcoming Last Dance documentary about Jordan and the 1998 season.</p>
<p>The book turned out to be very informative, with a ton of bits and anecdotes that I didn’t know about. I didn’t know how close Scottie Pippen was to leaving the team via trade in the 98 season (he delayed surgery on his foot to needle Bulls management). I always knew about the cantakerous nature of Bulls GM Jerry Krause, but this book takes it to another level, with real stories about how Jordan and Pippen would mercilessly tease him, but balanced with equally stunning quotes from Krause himself about needlessly seeking credit and validation.</p>
<p>As I’m writing this, I’ve seen the first two episodes of the Last Dance documentary. It’s remarkable how closely the documentary follows this book, with setting up the initial conflict at the start of the season (Phil Jackson’s contract negotiation), Krause asserting that it would be Jackson’s last year “even if he went 82-0”, and then Pippen threatening to hold out for a trade.</p>
<p>My advice to any Jordan, Bulls, or NBA fan is to read this book. It is the very definition of “essential”. If you can only read one book about Jordan, it should be this one. But also if you have read every other book about Jordan, you still need to read this one.</p>
<p><a name="howl"></a></p>
<h2>
<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Howls-Moving-Castle-Book-ebook/dp/B008LV8TSU">Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones</a>
</h2>
<div align="center"><img src="../../assets/images/2020-books-howl.jpg" /></div>
<p>I have been a fan of the Studio Ghibli film Howl’s Moving Castle for a very long time. It has arguably the weakest storyline of any of the Ghibli movies that I love, really just meandering from plot point to plot point. But, it has a very compelling main character (Sophie), wonderful music, and the most beautiful hand-drawn art of any Ghibli film.</p>
<p>I’m trying to read more fiction, and especially shorter, more easily digestible works. I decided to give the original book that the the movie is based on a try. The book has much of the same character as the movie. There is a lot of spontaneity, and a general sense that anything is possible at any time. Many of the storylines are similar to the movie also (for example, the use of magic to seed a flower yard and then open a flower shop).</p>
<p>The book does have some significant changes though, the most pleasant of which is that Sophie also has magical powers (although they are latent, and only discovered late). Ultimately, though, I found the book to be just as meandering and purposeless as the novel from a plot perspective. The best example of this is the book kind of just ends, the climax having been reached and epilogue played out in a very small number of pages. It was still an enjoyable read, but I will likely not be reading the sequels in the book series.</p>
2020-01-01 00:00:00 -0800http://localhost:4000/blog/2020-reading-list/
Nutcracker with the San Francisco Ballet<p>For the first time, we attended a formal performance as an entire family (it was Kiki’s first show!), seeing Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet with the San Francisco Ballet. The show was as pleasing as always, and we were especially impressed by the beautiful design of scenery on stage.</p>
<p>The most stunning moment of the ballet was the end of the first act, when we are first transported to the land of sweets. It started “snowing” on stage, and the finale resulted in huge buckets of snow getting dumped on the dancers. It was a nice visual effect, definitely keeping well with the season.</p>
<div align="center"><img src="../../assets/images/nutcracker-with-the-san-francisco-ballet.jpg" /></div>
<div align="center"><i>It's snowing on stage!</i></div>
<p><br /></p>
2019-12-29 00:00:00 -0800http://localhost:4000/blog/nutcracker-with-the-san-francisco-ballet/
Tessa Lark Private Recital<p>We attended a violin recital featuring Tessa Lark in a private home in Palo Alto. This is probably as close to true 19th century style salons as we’ll get in this day and age, and it all resulted in an unforgettable music experience.</p>
<p>The event was organized by the <a href="https://www.californiamusiccenter.org/event/holiday-house-concert-tessa-lark-solo-violin/">California Music Center (CMC)</a>. One of their primary missions is to organize the Klein Competition, which awards outstanding young string players with monetary prizes and performance opportunities.</p>
<p>Tessa Lark had won the Klein Competition ten years ago, and it seems like her career has taken off since then. She’s since won the Avery Fisher Career Grant award, and she also let us know in the recital that her recent music album was nominated for a Grammy.</p>
<p>The setting was very intimate. There were roughly 30 audience members, and we all huddled in the large living room of a private residence in Palo Alto. No one was more than maybe 20-30 feet from the soloist. We also had the opportunity to chat and meet the audience members, many of whom are involved with the CMC, and all of whom of course share a love for music.</p>
<p>The program had a theme of “From Baroque to Folk”. Lark started with Telemann’s Fantasia No. 7, then moved into her own medley of Telemann themes from the Fantasias (which ended with the lovely Emily’s Reel by Mark O’Connor). Then the real meat and potatoes of the recital was next with Bach’s E major Partita No. 3. After intermission, Lark did my favorite Ysaye sonata movement (and the only one I can even come close to attempting!), the Allemande from the fourth sonata, the one dedicated to Fritz Kreisler. After that came Kreisler’s own Recitativo and Scherzo-Caprice. Lark ended with her own Appalachian Fantasy, which incorporated a bunch of melodies from Schubert’s Fantasy for Violin and which uniquely required Lark to use <a href="https://www.fiddlehangout.com/archive/1043">Dead Man’s tuning</a>, producing a very folksy sound. Finally, Lark ended with a short Silent Night encore with a singer from the audience (I unfortunately did not get her name).</p>
<p>Tessa Lark played beautifully and the intimate nature of the setting made the sound feel extra warm. The program was a great mixture of classics and new delights.</p>
<p>One small thing I realized before the recital started is that Tessa Lark is someone that I originally watched on YouTube more than ten years ago. She was one of the star pupils of <a href="http://violinmasterclass.com/">Kurt Sassmanhaus</a>, a violin pedagogue. Sassmanhaus is one of the early pioneers of classical music on the internet. He had great SEO (violinmasterclass.com) and a giant first mover advantage. Most importantly, he was brave enough to put all his teachings online, complete with video snippets of his students. In fact, at this point, I can’t even remember if I was watching the videos on YouTube; it’s entirely possible he even predated YouTube.</p>
<p>It reinforces how small communities can be, and especially the classical music community. In 2007, I never would have imagined that I would get to see the young teenager on my computer screen as a mature musician, someone who is ready to share her voice with the world.</p>
2019-12-11 00:00:00 -0800http://localhost:4000/blog/tessa-lark-private-recital/
Book Review - Range<p><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Range-Generalists-Triumph-Specialized-World/dp/0735214484/">Range</a> by David Epstein is the most influential book I’ve read in some time. Range discusses the impact and benefits of generalized learning vs. specialization. In particular, it argues that waiting to specialize, and instead embarking on a general, varied field of study and experiences, will lead to better problem solving skills and eventual success.</p>
<div align="center"><img src="../../assets/images/book-review-range.jpg" /></div>
<p><br /></p>
<p>I first heard of the book on <a href="http://www.espn.com/espnradio/play?id=27576340">Zach Lowe’s NBA podcast</a>. When I first heard the concept of generalized vs. specialized learning, I was ready to disagree with it. A piece of advice that I give to first-time product managers is to go deep on a single topic when starting the job. I feel product managers cannot spread themselves thin, and instead must become an expert in something.</p>
<p>After reading through the book, I don’t think my thoughts are in conflict at all. My advice generally is to completely understand one product or one product feature, and understand its workings end to end. The book is trying to say that you should not be the owner of that one product or feature for your entire career. Instead, you should try to gather as many disparate experiences as possible, so that you will be able to generalize your experiences. Most developmentally-forward organizations, like Google, already understand this. This is why product managers are encouraged to take on additional projects and then eventually switch to new teams and areas completely after a few years.</p>
<p><em>Side note: I have been a product manager in the enterprise data analytics area for nearly five years now, and if it’s generalized to enterprise IT services, it’s nearly eight years. Perhaps it’s time for me to expand my range and try something totally different.</em></p>
<p>The book itself is very well written and well researched. Epstein writes in a page-turning, entertaining manner, by integrating lots of examples and stories with the results of academic studies. There are vivid anchor stories for each chapter, some of which I’ve jotted down down below.</p>
<p>More than anything, Range caused me to evaluate my life and career so far, and potentially strategize for the education of my children. I think on paper, my life can look very one-dimensional. I’m a Chinese-American who excelled in school. I studied computer engineering right after the dot com boom, got an MBA, and then ended up in software product management for some of the biggest tech companies in the world.</p>
<p>But I have always felt like there was a sizable outsider component to me. I grew up in a highly racially-uniform region (first Upper Michigan and then Minnesota), where the number of racial minority students numbered in the single digits in my high school graduating class of nearly 400. I studied violin and basically became entirely obsessed by it for a few years after college, trying to learn every piece there was and digesting every bit of classical music history. I seemed to accumulate odd jobs in high school, always willing to try new ways to make money (in order: paper boy, bag boy, soccer referee, Wendy’s, Subway, and that’s all before college). I decided to start pursuing an MBA mostly due to a one-off conversation I had with a stranger on an airplane, and entirely against the wishes of my parents. My breakthrough into product management at Amazon was mainly due to a risky job that I took with a payday lender.</p>
<p>I think the summary of this is that I was always open to trying new things (and oftentimes, diving obsessively into them). There was never any grand plan of where my career might end up. I didn’t even know what a software product manager was until a few days before my first Amazon interview, when I started reading about it on the internet. Range is a really neat and tidy summary of this. It turns out that most people don’t have that grand plan. Even extremely successful people often get there in a seemingly random manner, by first tackling one thing, then another, then another.</p>
<p>Below, I jotted down some of the notes I took down while reading the book.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>In comparing modern people vs. isolated indigeneous peoples, the biggest takeaway is that the indigeneous peoples only know what they experience firsthand. They have trouble with abstract concepts. Whereas modern people necessarily need to classify and abstract to understand how pieces relate to one another. In fact, the more contexts in which something is learned, the more the learner creates abstract models, and the less they rely on any one particular example.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>In that vain: teaching kids to read a little early is not a lasting advantage. Teaching them how to hunt for and connect contextual clues to understand what they read can be a lasting advantage.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Successful problem solvers are more able to determine the deep structure of a problem before they proceed to match a strategy to it. Less successful problem solvers are more likely to classify problems only by superficial, overtly stated features, like domain context. A brilliant example in the book is to consider two concepts: economics bubbles and Fed interest rate changes. Superficially, these two things are both about finance and economics. But another way of classifying them is as a positive feedback loop (economics bubbles) and a negative feedback loop (Fed interest rate change).</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Analogies are really powerful in understanding new ambiguous ideas. The research labs that were the most likely to turn unexpected findings into new knowledge for humanity made a lot of analogies, and made them from a variety of base domains. Versus labs that had lots of specialists, where analogies were less frequent and varied.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The most momentous personality changes occur between age eighteen and the late twenties, so specializing early is like predicting how well a person will match with something when that person that doesn’t even exist yet.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Claude Shannon, the father of Information Theory (and, essentially, the internet) took a philosophy course to fulfill a graduation requirement in college. In it, he was exposed to the work of George Boole, who showed how Boolean logic (0’s and 1’s) could be solved with math equations.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>The summary for all of the book’s findings into actionable advice: don’t feel behind; compare yourself to yourself yesterday, not to younger people who aren’t you.</p>
</li>
</ul>
2019-11-30 00:00:00 -0800http://localhost:4000/blog/book-review-range/
Beethoven 9 Picnic at Frost<p>After seeing the first SFS concert at Frost in several years a few days ago, we took the whole family and the kids to see them again, this time as a picnic. The music is of course still important, headlined by Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, and started with Ravel’s Sheherazade song cycle (and again with Gemma New conducting). This experience wasn’t as great as the Tchaikovsky with Gil Shaham, but it was still good to be outdoors and have our kids discover Beethoven’s best in a great setting.</p>
<p>Since we were sitting in the lawn section and had the kids with us, I focused less on the actual playing this time. Instead, I’ll write about my thoughts on the lawn experience.</p>
<div align="center"><img src="../../assets/images/beethoven-9-at-frost-1.jpg" /></div>
<div align="center"><i>Setting up our picnic area!</i></div>
<p><br /></p>
<p>We got there early and got a great lawn spot, at the front of the section and right in the middle. Unfortunately, the reason it wasn’t already taken is there was no shade in the center, and it was a very hot day. Still, we had a pretty good view of the orchestra and could see most of it plus the conductor.</p>
<p>Audio was the same as last time - every individual section was very loud, but the balance was uneven.</p>
<p>The late arrivers this time seemed even worse (probably because we could see every single person trying to make their way into the ticketed section). The opening Sherazade was about 15 minutes long, and people kept arriving for their seats throughout the entire piece. Even for an outdoor concert, I think it would be good to put some decorum in place; the concert starts on time, people that aren’t there should wait to be seated.</p>
<p>The second half brought the Beethoven. Musically, it was a nice performance, up to the standards of any professional recording. Gemma New again was very energetic in her conducting, and again, the orchestra didn’t really give any meaningful response. At least with the Beethoven 9, New’s arm waving and gesticulations didn’t seem out of place with the music.</p>
<div align="center"><img src="../../assets/images/beethoven-9-at-frost-2.jpg" /></div>
<div align="center"><i>The finale to the Beethoven 9 with the soloists</i></div>
<p><br /></p>
<p>Overall, I concluded that the lawn experience was not that good, particularly once accounting for price/value. For our entire family, we paid $120 ($30 for each adult and half price for each kid) total. That’s pretty steep when compared with a similar outdoor venue that I’m familiar with, Ravinia in the Chicago area, where lawn seats are just $15.</p>
<p>I think the expectations at Ravinia are clearer. The pavilion seating there has cover, so you won’t get stuck in the sun. The audio is also much better in the pavilion. There are clear entrances and ushers, so people cannot just come and go to the seating area even if they are late.</p>
<p>The expecations are also clearer for the lawn experience. You don’t get as good of a view of the orchestra compared to Frost. But it’s also less formal, and that could be much better for kids. They allow more picnic items, such as wine and tables, whereas Frost is more financially motivated to get you to buy their food and drinks.</p>
<p>I wonder what the SFS will conclude from this little experiment with the newly renovated Frost. In total, they did 3 concerts (the Tchaikovsky, and another of this Beethoven 9 program the night before). For this Sunday afternoon concert, the attendance was very weak. I would estimate that 80% of the ticketed seats were filled, but the lawn was very sparse, maybe only 30-40% filled. Part of this is it was a hot day. But most days in the summer in Palo Alto will be hot and sunny. Maybe this just isn’t a good place for the SFS to spend their time.</p>
<p>Selfishly, I hope they do more concerts at Frost because it’s just closer for me and I generally like to picnic during outdoor concerts. But even I may have to reconsider, given the costs and the relatively subpar experience for lawn-goers.</p>
2019-07-14 00:00:00 -0700http://localhost:4000/blog/beethoven-9-picnic-at-frost/
Gil Shaham and Tchaikovsky at Frost<p>We took in a summer concert at the newly re-opened Frost Amphitheater at Stanford University. It was an all-Tchaikovsky concert, with Gil Shaham playing the Violin Concerto, and the San Francisco Symphony with Genna New playing the Polonaise from Eugene Onegin and the Symphony No. 5. It was fun to attend an outdoor symphony concert again (I used to go regularly to Ravinia concerts when I lived in Ravinia).</p>
<p>First a quick note on Frost. It’s absolutely gorgeous inside, with the stage and the general experience newly renovated. As with other outdoor concert setups, there is lawn seating which is first-come first-serve and also a ticketed section closer to the stage. For this concert, we had ticketed seats in a really good location, center, roughly 15-20 rows back. This was the first SFS concert at Frost in several years.</p>
<p>The visuals were good. The stage has a pleasant-looking stone background, and the orchestra is easy to spot. The audio was a bit more challenging. Each section of the orchestra had their own mic, and the balance was unlike what you’d normally hear in an indoor hall. The result is that each individual section would end up too loud (particularly the brass during the louder moments in the symphony). But this also resulted in some interesting experiences, such as the violas coming across really strongly when they would have a section solo.</p>
<p>The logistics around Frost are less good. There were very strict rules around what you can and cannot bring in. For instance, no bags were allowed unless they were completely clear and see-through. We saw many ladies chatting arguing with security when trying to enter, over whether their bags would be allowed in. Also, late seating seemed very generous. Despite the presence of the overture, people were still seating themselves after the Violin Concerto started.</p>
<p>Going in, I wasn’t sure I had heard the Polonaise from Eugene Onegin before, but once the music started, I realized it’s a piece that gets played a lot, probably something I’ve heard on the radio dozens of times. It’s a nice little piece, with strong dancing melodies.</p>
<p>Next came Gil Shaham. I have <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Axingdig.com+gil+shaham&amp;qfront=gil+shaham">written extensively</a> about him on this blog. He is my favorite violinist and has been since I was a teenager. One of the early music albums I became obsessed over was Shaham’s recording of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto (I was less a fan of the Sibelius on the same album). His tone has always been so clear and bright, with warm vibrato, and the technique necessary to produce nearly flawless intonation. Since his younger days, Shaham’s intonation and articulation are not what they once were. But he still plays with an infectious joy, and it does come across.</p>
<div align="center"><img src="../../assets/images/gil-shaham-and-tchaikovsky-at-frost-1.jpg" /></div>
<div align="center"><i>His pose and his playing were both effortless</i></div>
<p><br /></p>
<p>One of the recent things I’ve noticed Shaham doing (I started noticing it <a href="http://xingdig.com/blog/a-religious-experience-with-gil-shaham-and-bach/">when I saw him doing the solo Bach</a>) is breaking up chords into multiple bows. They always come unexpectedly, and they only work because his bow arm is so free and flexible. I don’t like all of them, but it’s nice to see new ways of playing an old standby like Tchaikovsky.</p>
<p>I talked about the audio balance and the hot mic earlier. For the concerto, the mic seemed to pick up only Gil Shaham. That was fine with me! It was amazing how good his intonation was in this live performance, especially since we could hear every tiny detail due to the mic.</p>
<p>An interesting little moment came during the first moment. The orchestra was in the middle of a tutti interlude, playing for about a minute before the solo violin comes in again. Except this time, the SFS were noticeably dragging. A few measures before he would come in, Shaham looked at the conductor and started moving his arms in a forward motion, basically to say “move it and speed up!”. The pace continued dragging though. When Shaham came in, he instantly increased the tempo himself by about 30%. Of course the orchestra caught on, but I doubt this type of thing happens indoors (the orchestra probably had difficulty hearing themselves).</p>
<div align="center"><img src="../../assets/images/gil-shaham-and-tchaikovsky-at-frost-2.jpg" /></div>
<div align="center"><i>Unfortunately no encore this time</i></div>
<p><br /></p>
<p>The second half brought the Symphony No. 5. This is the only one of the trio (Symphonies 4, 5, and 6) that I haven’t played fully. I was lucky enough to perform the last movement of it in high school. Like the rest of the trio, this symphony is amazing, with beautiful melodies, lots of drama, and memorable climaxes (my favorite is the climax of the second movement).</p>
<p>The SFS played…ok. Certainly there were ups and downs. I’m not sure how high my expectations should be given this is a summer concert (likely many of the musicians are just back from vacation or about to take vacation) and being played in a totally new venue. It was weird that there were lots of bowing mistakes, perhaps they were given new preferred bowings from the conductor. I actually lost track how many major bowing mistakes there were, and they always seemed to happen at climaxes (where musicians would forget if they were supposed to take the extra bow or not). I even saw concertmaster Sasha screw up twice.</p>
<p>Overall, the energy was not high with the orchestra. It was very professional, but there was little engagement with the music or in particular with the conductor.</p>
<p>Finally, we get to the conductor. I had never heard of Gemma New, but in reading her bio, she was a student of Markand Thakar’s at Peabody. Thakar was the conductor of the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra while I was a section violinist there, and I hold him in high esteem.</p>
<p>New had a ton of energy all night. She was a little wild in her gestures, waving her arms and trying to elicit more from the orchestra. Interestingly enough, she was even trying to do this during the concerto, when normally conductors just take a back stage to the soloist. Unfortunately, the symphony didn’t really reciprocate. Often they didn’t even look at her. I think to the musicians, this is just a pops concert in the summer, playing a piece that they’ve performed dozens of times already. To Gemma New, this was probably an amazing opportunity to conduct a world-class orchestra. I’d love to see her again with the orchestra in a more traditional setting and playing something much harder that would keep the orchestra engaged.</p>
<div align="center"><img src="../../assets/images/gil-shaham-and-tchaikovsky-at-frost-3.jpg" /></div>
<div align="center"><i>Here's a wide shot that shows off the beautiful stage</i></div>
<p><br /></p>
2019-07-10 00:00:00 -0700http://localhost:4000/blog/gil-shaham-and-tchaikovsky-at-frost/